Neon Reef - any views?

TomDolan

yelias said:

TomDolan said:

just came off the chat, my switch was on 1st july and I had noticed that they had the closing read on the meter readings. Told this to the agent who quickly generated a final bill with around 40£ credit left on the account. She offered either setting up a dd mandate (although one was already there) or a cheque payment. I opted for cheque which should arrive in 10 days. Will update then.

I think that as long as the cheque is dated within 10 days of the final bill date, the supplier is deemed to have met their requirement.

As a matter on interest, did the supplier send you a copy of the final bill via email whilst you were hanging on the chat, and allow you time to carefully check it?
Otherwise, how do you know it is correct?

I remember UP took about 5 attempts to issue me with a correct final bill, but to their credit, 3 of these were withdrawn almost immediately after issue.

yeah, whilst on the chat he had generated the final bill on the online portal which i checked before asking for the cheque

yelias

TomDolan said:

dd received yesterday stating 0.00, was meant to go out today at 3x the prev dd so saved by the bell ! have to provide opening read in 2 days time to pfp

Interesting. You suggest the DD advice was indicating it was going to be 3x the previous amount.

Those NR customers who were worst afftected by their recent price rise appear to have been those on their original Aqua One variable tariff, that has not been offered to new customers since last Autumn.
Even those customers were only hit with a 30-40% increase at most.

So how did NR calculate your DD was to rise by 3x the previous amount?
That normally occurs when a customer under-estimates their EAC and so the account is in debit.

But now you say the account ended in credit? Had you not provided regular meter readings to NR, and so they were over-estimating your consumption? Their T&Cs state you must provide a meter reading at least once per month.

niktheguru

yelias said:

niktheguru said:

Well, i have just contacted them as my family member hadn't received a bill since march, despite giving regular meter readings (they were monthly before then) and ...

Is this the same family member who hasn't noticed they have not been receiving monthly bills/statements, or at least if they did notice, failed to do anything about it, for about the last 4 months, that you have recenty switched to Symbio?

If so, I wish them the vey best of luck for the future.

One thing I must say based on the comments of the Symbio feedback thread is that anyone with Symbio needs to be prepared to monitor their account like a hawk. I think I am pretty good monitoring my energy accounts (even if I do say so myself), but even I was put off with the thought of switching to Symbio. Life is far too short, even if they would have saved me about 30% at the time. (I see they have now increased their rates, but they are still coming out joint cheapest with Neo who won't give you a quote online, and I have other reasons not to allow Neo to supply us either)

Yes it's the same family member, whose account I manage, who has provided monthly meter reads, hence I know exactly the value of energy used and had a fixed direct debit, hence I wasn't concerned to waste my time chasing bills knowing I was going to switch them out shortly. The account was in slight debit and I topped it up with £20 before switching to avoid any block. Hence why the final bill is £1.30, so no drama really is there? (It's not my first rodeo, like yourself)

Thanks for your good luck but I have ample experience of symbio so will manage their account fine. (Unless they go bust of course!)

My point was neon reef claim that symbio have given them "estimates" of the final read despite symbio themselves using the accurate opening reads i gave them. They are just deflecting it back to symbio but can't explain why it is noted as estimate. Personally I think they're just using the estimate they generated themselves as I gave them a meter read a few days before, and they just added a little bit to that.

If you are good at monitoring your energy use like you say then symbio really isn't much drama. I'm speaking from experience of having been a customer. Sure, they are a bit of work and slightly frustrating, but worth it for the saving if a higher end user and no where near as bad as others moan about. (Probably not worth it if a low user, or if easily frustrated!)

yelias

niktheguru said:

yelias said:

niktheguru said:

Well, i have just contacted them as my family member hadn't received a bill since march, despite giving regular meter readings (they were monthly before then) and ...

Is this the same family member who hasn't noticed they have not been receiving monthly bills/statements, or at least if they did notice, failed to do anything about it, for about the last 4 months, that you have recenty switched to Symbio?

If so, I wish them the vey best of luck for the future.

One thing I must say based on the comments of the Symbio feedback thread is that anyone with Symbio needs to be prepared to monitor their account like a hawk. I think I am pretty good monitoring my energy accounts (even if I do say so myself), but even I was put off with the thought of switching to Symbio. Life is far too short, even if they would have saved me about 30% at the time. (I see they have now increased their rates, but they are still coming out joint cheapest with Neo who won't give you a quote online, and I have other reasons not to allow Neo to supply us either)

...

If you are good at monitoring your energy use like you say then symbio really isn't much drama. I'm speaking from experience of having been a customer. Sure, they are a bit of work and slightly frustrating, but worth it for the saving if a higher end user and no where near as bad as others moan about. (Probably not worth it if a low user, or if easily frustrated!)

I'd say that was a matter of opinion.

In my experience based on the Symbio feedback thread, all the other comments about the supplier on here and elsewhere, comments I have heard from a friend who was once supplied by them (not to mention that apparently, I allegedly work for them, according to somone on here...) they are a lot of work, very frustrating, and significantly worse than any other supplier moaned about by others on here.

Whether it's their outrageous monthly DD snatches from your bank account, their totally fictitous estimates of your usage, their seasonal profiling the sum of which far exceeds the EAC they are working to, the unfathomable increase in your EAC (especially if you are on a fixed level DD, because then they can increase it) their changes to their T&Cs with a bribe of 'if you don't like it, leave us and we'll pay you a fiver and waive any early exit fees', their attempt to demand 30% more over the year than they agree it will cost you (ofgem stopped this attempt) ... I could go on.

What about their failure to answer your phone call, their failure to respond to emails promptly, and when they do, often fail to answer the question you have asked. (They do that better than Boris!)

Then there's the tempting tariffs that are only open to new customers (not quite so tempting now they have increased their prices across the board). Renewals will cost much, much more. Think you will be able to switch easily at the end of the term? Not likely, they are often reported as blocking switch attempts for no lawful reason. Your best bet is to hope they change their T&Cs again and invite you to leave them as a result.

I could even mention thieir threats to their customers who dared to complain in public, and then them suggesting Ofgem was racist when Ofgem told them to stop. - but those you may argue don't affect you directly as a customer. But it's all part of their make up.

I'm sorry, but as I have said, I considered them, and realised my life was far too short to deal with all that nonsense even at any cost/saving. They are not for me whilst they act like that..

Telegraph_Sam

I think that I'd gladly pay a little extra not be be subjected to such treatment, not being and not wishing to be an expert in dealing with such matters.  This is where comments on forums such as this have their value. Except that by appearances this is a Neon Reef thread not a Symbio (confusing!)

WBCPB

niktheguru said:

yelias said:

niktheguru said:

Well, i have just contacted them as my family member hadn't received a bill since march, despite giving regular meter readings (they were monthly before then) and ...

Is this the same family member who hasn't noticed they have not been receiving monthly bills/statements, or at least if they did notice, failed to do anything about it, for about the last 4 months, that you have recenty switched to Symbio?

If so, I wish them the vey best of luck for the future.

One thing I must say based on the comments of the Symbio feedback thread is that anyone with Symbio needs to be prepared to monitor their account like a hawk. I think I am pretty good monitoring my energy accounts (even if I do say so myself), but even I was put off with the thought of switching to Symbio. Life is far too short, even if they would have saved me about 30% at the time. (I see they have now increased their rates, but they are still coming out joint cheapest with Neo who won't give you a quote online, and I have other reasons not to allow Neo to supply us either)

Yes it's the same family member, whose account I manage, who has provided monthly meter reads, hence I know exactly the value of energy used and had a fixed direct debit, hence I wasn't concerned to waste my time chasing bills knowing I was going to switch them out shortly. The account was in slight debit and I topped it up with £20 before switching to avoid any block. Hence why the final bill is £1.30, so no drama really is there? (It's not my first rodeo, like yourself)

Thanks for your good luck but I have ample experience of symbio so will manage their account fine. (Unless they go bust of course!)

My point was neon reef claim that symbio have given them "estimates" of the final read despite symbio themselves using the accurate opening reads i gave them. They are just deflecting it back to symbio but can't explain why it is noted as estimate. Personally I think they're just using the estimate they generated themselves as I gave them a meter read a few days before, and they just added a little bit to that.

If you are good at monitoring your energy use like you say then symbio really isn't much drama. I'm speaking from experience of having been a customer. Sure, they are a bit of work and slightly frustrating, but worth it for the saving if a higher end user and no where near as bad as others moan about. (Probably not worth it if a low user, or if easily frustrated!)

Same thing here, the silly thing is their last estimate dated on my start date with Symbio is lower than their previous estimate 6 days earlier.
Regards

niktheguru

yelias said:

I'd say that was a matter of opinion.

In my experience based on the Symbio feedback thread, all the other comments about the supplier on here and elsewhere, comments I have heard from a friend who was once supplied by them (not to mention that apparently, I allegedly work for them, according to somone on here...) they are a lot of work, very frustrating, and significantly worse than any other supplier moaned about by others on here

Not really a matter of opinion. Given I've been a customer, have joined them, dealt with them and left them I'd say that's probably slightly more experience than reading the feedback forum.

They have been ok in answering the phone with me, emails indeed are hit and miss, but then so is octopus' who I'm with currently. Indeed my switch was initially blocked, but after a phone call was unblocked and the switch was processed with no end delay.

Like I said, you have to be patient to deal with them, on the ball and they are fine. They're certainly not for everyone and some of their practices should be removed by the hapless regulator, but I saved a tonne of money with them for a year given I have a moderately high usage. Indeed they didn't give me my final bill despite me helpfully emailing them early to be proactive. Despite an email promising it to be dealt with after 3 months a 5minute completion of form to the ombudsman and they have produced the final bill, paid the £30 compensation we agreed (I wasn't interested in sucking them dry) and we move on.

In the space of a year I probably spent about 30 minutes in total dealing with symbio by email or on the phone, including the ombudsman. That's 30 mins I was willing to do for the financial saving.

Your favourite company look after my bills moved a load of patients to symbio 18 months ago too! ;-)


Anyways, I'll say no more on the subject here as its the neon reef thread. Certainly neon reef are less maintainable, its a shame their prices are so high now.

SPOWER

Yes.... it is a Neon Reef thread and I will pipe up now.  I just can't go this company anymore.  3 supplies I had with them and all was well.   Then they put the prices up and these electricty accounts went elsewhere.  Now 2 of these are just over £100 in credit.  1 was £20 in debit.  The 1 that was in debit was billed by them and paid by me.  The 2 that are in credit oddly, have not been billed.  Strange that.  So I will sit here and wait for the bills.  I will then claim every penny I can off them under OFGEM rules.  The other thing that annoys me about them is that after bumping up everyone on the original tariff to the new one - MARINE -  they then quiety introduce a new one, much lower priced - NEPTUNE- they are crap.

yelias

SPOWER said:

Yes.... it is a Neon Reef thread and I will pipe up now.  I just can't go this company anymore. 
...
  The other thing that annoys me about them is that after bumping up everyone on the original tariff to the new one - MARINE -  they then quiety introduce a new one, much lower priced - NEPTUNE- they are crap.

Marine v4 is a varible tariff, as was the original Aqua One.
Neptune is a 12M Fixed Rate tariff. It also has as early exit fee.

Suppliers are not permitted under Ofgem regulations to put customers onto a fixed rate tariff or a tariff with an early exit fee, unless the customer specifically requests that.
If you want the Neptune tariff, you simply need to ask for it.

But you've already shown all your cards.

SPOWER

yelias said:

SPOWER said:

Yes.... it is a Neon Reef thread and I will pipe up now.  I just can't go this company anymore. 
...
  The other thing that annoys me about them is that after bumping up everyone on the original tariff to the new one - MARINE -  they then quiety introduce a new one, much lower priced - NEPTUNE- they are crap.

Marine v4 is a varible tariff, as was the original Aqua One.
Neptune is a 12M Fixed Rate tariff. It also has as early exit fee.

Suppliers are not permitted under Ofgem regulations to put customers onto a fixed rate tariff or a tariff with an early exit fee, unless the customer specifically requests that.
If you want the Neptune tariff, you simply need to ask for it.

But you've already shown all your cards.

I've not shown any cards.  I've got a deck here, close to my chest and you are not the forum headmaster.